AVITA Medical’s Katie Bush, PhD, discusses how the RECELL skin regeneration system is helping plastic surgeons in hospital and clinic settings reduce donor site burden, accelerate healing, and improve outcomes in acute wound care and reconstructive procedures.
Cell-based regenerative technologies are expanding the options available to plastic surgeons working in hospital and clinic-based settings. AVITA Medical’s RECELL System—best known for its use in acute burn care—has treated more than 30,000 patients since FDA approval and is now being applied to a wider range of reconstructive procedures, including scar revisions, trauma cases, and post-oncologic wound repair. By creating a spray-on suspension of a patient’s own skin cells from a small donor sample, RECELL enables treatment of larger surface areas while minimizing donor site morbidity and recovery time.
Recent FDA clearances, including Category I CPT codes and new clinical indications, are positioning RECELL for broader use beyond burn centers. To discuss these developments, Plastic Surgery Practice spoke with Katie Bush, PhD, senior vice president of scientific and medical affairs at AVITA Medical. She shares how RECELL is evolving and what its expanding role could mean for plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Plastic Surgery Practice: RECELL has made significant strides in burn care—how do you see its application evolving in elective and reconstructive plastic surgery settings?
Katie Bush, PhD: With over 30,000 patients treated since its FDA approval, RECELL’s success in burn care has built a strong foundation for its broadening use. We see tremendous potential in procedures such as scar revisions, trauma reconstructions, and post-oncologic excisional repairs. The ability to generate a regenerative skin cell spray using a small skin sample allows surgeons to minimize donor site morbidity while enhancing outcomes in terms of speed to patient recovery and reduction in length of hospital stay.
PSP: For plastic surgeons, what are the most compelling clinical advantages RECELL offers compared to traditional autografting techniques?
Bush: The most compelling advantages of RECELL are reduced donor site burden (size of donor tissue, pain at donor site, and better aesthetic outcomes), accelerated healing, and reduction in length of hospital stay. RECELL enables treatment of larger surface areas with significantly smaller donor sites as compared to traditional skin grafting techniques, which translates into less pain and quicker recovery for patients. Surgeons also appreciate its flexibility. RECELL can be used alone in partial-thickness burns or in combination with meshed grafts for full-thickness injuries.
PSP: Can you walk us through the mechanism of action behind RECELL’s Spray-On Skin and how it enhances wound healing and aesthetic outcomes?
Bush: RECELL’s Spray-On Skin delivers a suspension of the patient’s own skin cells—including keratinocytes, melanocytes, and fibroblasts—directly onto the wound bed. These cells are key drivers of healing and pigment restoration. By rapidly repopulating the wound with these cell types, RECELL supports faster closure at the cellular level across the entire surface of the wound. Faster healing is known to result in less scarring.
PSP: What does the current body of clinical evidence say about scar quality and patient satisfaction with RECELL versus conventional skin grafting?
Bush: In a randomized controlled trial, scar outcomes and reported pain at the donor site were reported to be more favorable for the RECELL treatment group compared to the standard skin grafting group. Long-term assessments showed subjects expressed greater satisfaction with the visual appearance of the RECELL donor site compared to the Control donor site.
PSP: Are there specific patient populations or case types where RECELL has demonstrated particular value?
Bush: Yes, RECELL has shown value in patient populations where donor site availability is limited, preservation is a clinical priority, and minimal invasiveness is essential. This includes patients with fragile or aging skin, and those with comorbidities that compromise wound healing. RECELL is also especially advantageous in cases requiring large surface area coverage from a small donor harvest, such as traumatic injuries or complex reconstructive procedures.
Overall, RECELL’s ability to significantly reduce donor site burden while promoting effective re-epithelialization makes it a highly versatile tool that should be considered for all patient populations.
PSP: How steep is the learning curve for integrating RECELL into plastic surgery practice, and what kind of support does AVITA offer for adoption?
Bush: AVITA Medical offers comprehensive training through in-person workshops, peer-to-peer education, and hands-on support, which helps surgeons become proficient quickly. We also provide ongoing clinical and reimbursement guidance to ensure a smooth transition and successful integration into practice workflows.
PSP: As regulations and reimbursement models shift, how is AVITA positioning RECELL to remain viable and attractive for use outside large hospital systems?
Bush: AVITA is taking deliberate steps to support the use of RECELL across a variety of care settings. In January 2025, new Category I CPT Codes specific to skin cell suspension autograft (SCSA) procedures utilizing the RECELL system took effect, providing a defined coding pathway and enabling reimbursement for both facilities and physicians. RECELL is recognized and reimbursed by Medicare, and we are actively working with commercial payers to expand coverage as outpatient adoption grows.
Combined with the system’s ease of use and minimal infrastructure requirements, these efforts position RECELL to remain a viable and accessible treatment option beyond large hospital systems.
PSP: Looking ahead, what innovations or clinical indications is AVITA exploring that could further extend RECELL’s relevance in the plastic surgery field?
Bush: Recently AVITA Medical introduced the next generation RECELL GO Device which has an updated interface designed to support broader adoption across a range of hospital settings. AVITA Medical has also introduced the RECELL GO mini disposable cartridge designed to specifically treat smaller wounds up to 2.5% of total body surface area, compared to the standard RECELL GO disposable cartridge, which treats an area of up to 10%. RECELL GO mini addresses a critical need in the plastic surgery market today to realize the benefits of RECELL when treating a disproportionately high volume of smaller wounds.
Additionally, AVITA Medical is broadening its portfolio with two recently approved complementary products to RECELL. The first product is PermeaDerm, a temporary biosynthetic dressing used to mimic the epidermal layer of skin until healing can be achieved. We are currently recruiting for PermeaDerm I, a prospective randomized controlled study evaluating the use of PermeaDerm as a temporary dressing compared to cadaveric tissue.Cohealyx, our most recent product addition, is a collagen dermal matrix that can be utilized for partial-thickness or full-thickness wounds. In a pre-clinical study, Cohealyx supported cellular migration and revascularization, creating a wound bed ready for skin grafting in 7 days. We are seeing similar results in clinical use and have an ongoing clinical trial, Cohealyx I, formally evaluating wound bed preparation, time to autografting, autograft take, healing, and safety-related adverse events. PSP
